WiMAX

Sprint has updated its portable WiMAX hotspot, in the shape of the Sprint Overdrive Pro. Offering both 3G and 4G connectivity, the Overdrive Pro boosts the number of simultaneous supported clients to eight (up from five on the original Overdrive) as well as coming in at a lower price.

We all know that Sprint is looking at anything and everything to get its network back in to the fight with AT&T and Verizon as it continues to lose ground to the two largest networks. Some of Sprints plans for the future have surfaced and these will reportedly be implemented over the next three of our years. Whether they will happen and if they will help remains to be seen.

Clearwire has lost three top executives including CEO Bill Morrow, who has resigned for "personal reasons." The news comes shortly after a lawsuit was filed against the company, alleging Clearwire throttled home WiMAX connections and did not provide the high-speed internet service that it had promised.

Clearwire is being slammed with a lawsuit today that alleges that the wireless operator has been throttling its WiMAX service. Complaints began in mid-2010 that Clearwire had begun throttling home internet connections to as slow as 256Kbps. And now a group of 15 users have filed a lawsuit accusing Clearwire of not delivering high-speed internet as advertised and charging them termination fees when they walked away.

When it comes to odd bedfellows, GSM and CDMA generally don't mix, but according to the latest carrier rumors that may not be the case forever. Businessweek's sources claim Sprint is in talks with Deutsche Telekon over buying T-Mobile USA in return for "a major stake" in the resulting combined company, with negotiations currently caught up on a fair valuation of T-Mobile.

Looks like the HTC EVO View 4G really is incoming at CTIA 2011 next month, with HTC filing a couple of trademark applications for the mysterious new device. Good and EVO spotted the listings - here and here - which confirm both the name and the 4G connectivity; we still don't know, however, whether the device is a smartphone or a tablet.

That Sprint has ambitious plans for CTIA 2011 was obvious; the carriers hefty 2.5hr presentation at the show was evidence of that. According to the latest leaks, however, there should be no shortage of devices to fill that slot: an EVO View tablet that's tipped to be a CDMA version of the HTC Flyer, according to Engadget's anonymous source, together with a Samsung Nexus S 4G.

Sprint has suggested it could have a nationwide 4GLTE network in place and operational by the end of 2013, though the carrier's apparent consideration of LTE could well be in part a negotiating tactic with its Clearwire WiMAX partner. Steve Elfman, Sprint's president of network operations and wholesale, confirmed this week that the carrier could have LTE operation and devices on the marker by 2012, FierceWireless reports; however, Elfman also said no final decision would be made until midway through this year.

WiMax appears doomed in the US with Clearwire shutting down retail operations and LTE networks coming online as we speak. Sprint banked on a massive lead in the market for WiMax to offset the slower speeds compared to LTE and that significant lead didn't get Sprint where it hoped to be. According to PCWorld Sprint is now looking at the future of 4G and eyeing LTE.

Airspan is showing off its new Air4G base station at MWC 2011 in Spain this week. The new base station is a cool device that will make networks more flexible for carriers and allow the network to offer more bandwidth to end users. The Air4G integrates the ability to operate both WiMax and LTE 4G networks using the same hardware.